Love, Hate, & Teamwork (One Shot)
by FanWriterGirl994
Summary: My version of how ZugZwang should have ended, beginning right after Dianne takes Reid's blindfold off. Suspense, Romance, Slight Humor. Rated T for violence and language


Love, Hate, and Teamwork

How ZugZwang Should've Ended

Reid: "My Body Literally aches at the thought of never seeing you again." - Unknown

January 2013

The air was heavy with tension in the poorly-lit empty warehouse where Maeve had been taken after being kidnapped by her stalker. Spencer sat in a chair right across from her, they were so close to freedom, so close to finally putting the last ten months behind them, but first, they had to get away from Dianne… they were officially out of time and out of second chances, and Reid knew it. It was do or die. Get Maeve away from this psycho or lose her forever.

Dianne moved in close with the gun, her long black hair dangling threateningly close. Reid tried to grab it away from her but she held on. It was like a battle of wills, each trying to wrestle the gun away from the other. Dianne still had it aimed at him, he tried to turn it around as she moved for the trigger so that the bullet would hit her instead of him; but it was all he could do to redirect it at the wall. Dianne stood there, distracted, for a moment, and that moment was all Reid needed. In a moment of athletic prowess that surprised even himself, and certainly would've shocked those who knew him, he kicked Dianne in the stomach, forcing her to fall backward on the ground, and ran past her, toward Maeve. But Dianne swung round and kicked him in the back forcing him to the ground.

"Spencer!" Maeve cried. She tried to get up, but her hands were still tied to the arms of the chair.

He looked up when he heard her voice, but this was the first time he could match it to a face. Finally after ten long months, he was finally doing what he had dreams about so many times, gazing into the eyes of the only woman he'd ever loved. Oh how he'd longed for this but this was not at all how he'd imagined it. He just wanted to knock Dianne unconscious, hug Maeve and get them both the hell out of there, but Dianne was desperate now, there was no way it was going to be that easy.

Meanwhile, behind him, Dianne once again held the gun in her hands. Only this time it was trained directly on Maeve. Reid staggered to his feet and scurried across the room to stand between Maeve and the gun. All self-preservation was gone. His only thought was how to get Maeve out of this alive. Shots had already been fired and he knew that meant the team was already making their way through the building toward them. He just had to find some way to buy them just a little bit more time.

Dianne fired again, this time hitting clean through his left arm. He grit his teeth and for a minute or two his knees buckled under him from the pain. Yet he knew, that if he let himself collapse before help arrived they were both done for, so somehow he found the strength to stand firm. When he looked up. He saw that the others had finally arrived and they now had Dianne surrounded.

"Dianne Turner, put the gun down." Hotch ordered, his voice was calm, but there was an intensity to it that for anyone else would have allowed no refusal. Instead of dropping her weapon, Dianne smirked darkly and moved her finger to the trigger, with the barrel of the gun trained squarely on Maeve's forehead.

Reid's heart was hammering a mile a second and the more it raced the more blood he was losing through the wound in his arm. Maybe it was that, maybe it was the shock, but no matter the reason, he finally collapsed and the world went black, as he faded out of consciousness, he thought he heard the sound of one more gunshot.

Two Hours Later…

When Reid finally came to, he was lying in a hospital bed. The air was saturated with the stench of harsh antiseptic, he could hear the annoying and unmistakable beeping of hospital monitors, and when he opened his eyes, at first all he could see was a bright, white, florescent light above him.

He slowly turned his head and saw that he was attached to an IV…judging from the color of the bag's contents, he decided that he must be in the process of receiving a blood transfusion. That made sense, considering how much blood he must have lost… he couldn't be entirely sure, but something made him think that Dianne had hit pretty close to an artery when she shot him.

Dianne…

It was all her fault that this had happened, she's the one who had stalked and terrified Maeve for months on end, abducted her and tried to kill them both when he had come to her rescue. Fortunately, he hadn't come alone.

The last thing he remembered before blacking out, was hearing the sound of another gunshot, but he couldn't place who had fired or at whom…he just knew that Morgan had, had his gun aimed at Dianne…

 _Where's Maeve?! What happened after I lost consciousness?!_ He wondered.

JJ stood in the corner of his hospital room, her blue eyes sparkled with relief when she saw that he had woken up.

"Spence! Are you alright?" she asked.

He nodded weakly. "Wh-What happened?" He asked. "Where's Maeve? What happened after I passed out?"

"Calm down...she's ok, a little banged up, but she'll be fine...you did it Spence, you saved her." She told him calmly

He sighed heavily in a mix of relief and elation...she was safe...and that's all he cared about. Then again...was she?

"What about Dianne? I heard another gunshot but I couldn't tell who shot who..."

"Morgan shot Dianne in the head, her gun was aimed at Maeve, her finger was on the trigger...another few seconds and that could have gone very, very differently."

Meanwhile, Maeve, who by then had actually been discharged, and was now trying to calm her parents who were both acting almost as if she actually had died.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Mary Donovan asked her daughter. She was a short, slight woman

who looked like an older version of her daughter except that her hair was completely red, a light, burnt, orange shade instead of reddish brown.

"I'm fine Mom, it's not me that I'm worried about…" Maeve replied calmly.

"Then what's the matter Princess?" Her father asked, using his pet name for her.

"Do you two remember that guy I told you about? The one I started talking to right before I went into hiding?" She asked.

"Yes…you seemed...happy, whenever you would talk about him, like your correspondence was the one bright spot in all of this…" Her father replied.

"He was…he is…and it's because of him that I'm still alive, he's one of the FBI agents who saved me, he's the one who brought his team in to help me…and he got shot while we were in the warehouse. He lost a lot of blood… I'll be ok, as soon as I know he's ok…"

"Well come on then…let's go see if we can find him shall we?" Her mom asked.

Maeve nodded, and followed her parents out into the hallway.

Meanwhile in the visitor's lounge, Morgan was on the phone with Garcia.

"Morgan… thank God… I was starting to think you'd never call. Well? What happened down there? The coms quit working once you guys entered that warehouse, it must have had concrete walls or something…"

"We're at the hospital, St. Luke's, it's in downtown DC…Maeve's ok…she's got a concussion and some bruises but she'll be alright…"

Garcia breathed a sigh of relief…they'd done it…they'd saved her, she hated to even consider what it would have done to Reid mentally and emotionally had they failed…

"And Dianne…?" She asked.

"She's dead, I shot her and I put a bullet in her brain." Morgan explained.

"No… no… NO! No that… that is not good enough… I wanna watch her suffer, I wanna watch her BLEED!" Garcia was yelling now. "The things that she did, what she put Maeve and Reid through…it…it's just not fair…"

"Babygirl I didn't have much of a choice…Dianne was bound and determined that there was no way both she and Maeve were making it out of that warehouse alive."

"Fine…at least she can't hurt them anymore…" Garcia reminded herself.

"Exactly…see yall gotta see the big picture Garcia…"

"Now what about Reid?" She asked.

"Reid got shot…" Morgan told her. He was about to elaborate but before he could, Garcia had already hung up on him, presumably because she was on her way here.

Meanwhile… by this time, Spencer had been detached from the IV and was now also free to roam about the hospital looking for Maeve, but it was Maeve who found him.

She couldn't believe it when she saw him there, his bloodied left sleeve rolled up and thick white bandages wrapped around the bullet wound, but other than that, and looking slightly exhausted, he seemed to be alright. She ran to him and hugged him tightly.

"Spencer!" She cried happily.

"Maeve!" he replied.

"Spencer… you…you could've... been... killed…" she whispered in his ear, squeezing him tighter, not realizing that his injured arm was included in her vice grip.

"I know…uh…Maeve…ow…ow…." he yelped in pain as she squeezed the wounded area, even with a quarter-inch thick wrap of gauze, bandages and medical tape, it was still really, really sore when touched.

Realizing that she was hugging him too tightly and hurting his arm she backed off. "I'm sorry…I'm sorry…."

"It's ok, I've had worse...besides… you're safe. It was worth it."

"But…But you could've been killed…" she exclaimed.

"Maeve…that's just about every day."

She just hugged him again, this time leaving his injured arm on the outside.

"Please…try not to scare me like that again…ok?" She asked.

"I could say the same thing to you…" he whispered.

"Fine. Then we're even." She replied.

"Um…I hate to interrupt…but um…Maeve…Darling…introductions please?" Her father cut in, neither she, nor Reid had noticed that both of her parents had been standing there the whole time.

Maeve blushed. "Sorry Dad…Spencer, these are my parents, Mary and Joe Donovan, Mom,

Dad…This is Spencer…" She explained.

Joe Donovan reached for Spencer's hand, and though Reid usually avoided shaking hands as much as possible, he consented this time.

"You saved my daughter's life…how can I ever thank you enough?" He asked with tears in his eyes.

"Honestly, there's no thanks needed Sir…I love her too…I had to do something, and actually it's my team who deserve the real credit, without them there's a good chance that Maeve and I would both be dead…" Reid told him.

The Donovans both nodded and decided to give the two of them some privacy. Hugging Maeve one last time, before heading down the hall.

"Speaking of your team…" Maeve began. "I thought you said there were seven of you total… I've only met five of the others…"

"Oh…you know who you haven't met yet…Penelope, our technical analyst, she's almost never in the field and wasn't this time so she might not be here yet… but without her, I wouldn't have been able to find you, much less save you…"

"Reid, there you are…" a familiar voice called down the hall, they turned to see Garcia approaching. When she arrived, she hugged him far too tightly but didn't apologize when he yelped in pain. Once she let go of him she turned to Maeve.

"And you must be Maeve…and we're here, and we're together, and you're both…in…one… piece… Thank God… Reid you really had me worried there for awhile, I hadn't heard from you directly and then I talked to Morgan and he said that you were shot…"

"Yeah…I was shot…in the arm… it was through and through, all it hit was muscle, no bone, no major arteries…" He explained. "I'm fine…" He added, Garcia wasn't the only one he was trying to convince of that, Maeve was still eyeing him worriedly. Garcia looked positively dumbfounded.

"He didn't specify that did he?" Reid asked.

"No…no he did not…" She replied, clearly angry with him, when she spied Morgan standing behind them at the edge of the hallway.

"DEREK!" She yelled, stalking toward him. She grabbed a magazine off of an end table and smacked him with it. "What the Hell? Were you trying to give me a heart attack? Why didn't you tell me what really happened?"

"I did…I told you he got shot…and as you can see…he's fine…"

"Well when you hear the words 'Reid got shot' you don't exactly take that for granted Morgan!" She reminded him as they faded off out of earshot.

Maeve just watched, dumfounded by the scene.

Reid chuckled. "They'll work it out…they always do…"

"Spencer…" Maeve asked. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Are you?" He asked in return, his brown eyes searching hers for any hint of hidden pain.

"Yes…yes, I'm alright…" she answered.

"Then so am I…" he replied.

"It's really over?" She asked.

"It's over…she's dead, she can't hurt you anymore…"

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"Something I've been waiting for since our near-miss at the restaurant, and really quite a while before that…" he said, leaning in close.

Then he kissed her passionately, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

 _Reid: "Remember, anyone can love you when the sun is shining, in the storms you find out who truly cares for you." - Unknown_


End file.
